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Controversy continues over video billboard

Posted: 9:21 PM, Sep 18, 2018

Updated:2018-09-19 03:36:46Z

By:
Katie Wisely

TULSA, Okla. -- Controversy continues to strike as neighbors near 41st and Yale continue to push to remove a giant video billboard that is on restricted tribal land. Now, neighbors are finding out new information through open records requests.

Midtown neighbors say they still look the other way when they see the billboard.

“I was coming back from Denver and I could see from the air he flashing billboard," neighbor Claire Harkness said. "I knew exactly where I was.”

Since the middle of August, neighbors have wondered if the billboard owner went through the proper channels before building it.

“When they purchased their house in this neighborhood, their understanding of it is that all of the neighbors and all of the plots of land around them are residential," Harkness said.

Midtown neighbor Jennifer Harmon requested a handful of open records.

“It’s an issue of a neighborhood who has restricted convenience and there was a process involved to transfer this lot off of the city tax rolls," she said.

Harmon says she found out a lot from the open records.

“There were some hiccups and procedural missteps which were opportunities for the neighbors to weigh in and oppose the use of the lot for a billboard," she said.

Not only are neighbors upset the billboard is still up, but claim city councilors and the mayor are working to create a new ordinance so this doesn’t happen again.

"As it stands right now, a precedent has been set," Harmon said. "This could happen anytime now in many residential neighborhoods.”

More than a dozen neighbors are looking at hiring an attorney to move forward.

“What the options are and how they would approach dealing with the issue of getting the billboard taken down," Harmon said.

Back in August, 2 Works for You spoke with the city and at the time they told us zoning and safety codes were limited by federal law and they were examining all options to seek recourse.

But in a matter of time, a group of neighbors hopes the bright lights will go away.